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AUDIO TITLE: Episode #63 – Alice Derock Interview
Jenn T Grace:
Alright so I guess what I'd love to just have you maybe walk us through a little bit about your history, maybe a little bit about what you've done in the past, and what you- you know what experiences maybe led you to the point where you are, where you founded your current company.
Alice Derock:
Okay, so I used to work in the hotels in France, like at five star hotels. And I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and see what was missing was the idea of which product I could bring to the market, something new and something, you know that will help people or it be- yeah that would help people. So one day with my girlfriend we went to a love store to buy a sex toy, and the only thing that was proposed to us was really like you know realistic and with like not good image with straight girls on the back of the packaging and we were just like, "Don't you have anything for lesbians?" And the guy said, "No we don't have." And so then we went on the Internet and we didn't find any manufacturer of sex toys for lesbians. So this from where the story starts.
Jenn T Grace:
Okay so like most entrepreneurs, you're starting from a place of you were looking for something for yourself, and ended up-
Alice Derock:
Exactly.
Jenn T Grace:
Yeah. Okay so can you I guess share with the listeners where you're located, and then additionally- I know we were just talking about the different places that you have warehouses, because you are a global company. So I'd love for them to kind of get a good sense of just the size and magnitude of your-
Alice Derock:
Sure. So we started the business in France, like we launched the business in France and then like three months after, I moved to New York and then I really started the company in New York in fact. And so today the head office is in New York, we have the company in France also for all of Europe. We have warehouses in like California, in Santa Clara, warehouse in Paris, and we have just opened a warehouse in Sydney now. So we're covering North America, Europe, and Australia.
Jenn T Grace:
So what I guess in your work experience, or your past industry knowledge, or anything like that made you feel like you had what it took to basically carve out an entire new niche within a huge industry that's very male dominated I would imagine?
Alice Derock:
What helped me with my experience?
Jenn T Grace:
Mm hmm.
Alice Derock:
I will say- I would say that today what my experience in the hotel industry helped me with customer service, and that might be the only thing because coming from the hotel industry where we are giving service in fact to customers, it's very different from being a manufacturer. So I had to learn every step from designing, manufacturing, with the mold, with how it worked, packaging, and then shipping, and then warehousing, and then setting. And then we have all the marketing and everything. So I had to learn a lot in fact.
Jenn T Grace:
That sounds kind of crazy. So how long did it take you to go from inception of 'we need to do this because we ourselves need this, so we need to create this,' to actually having a product that goes to market?
Alice Derock:
It took like- it took like a year and a half.
Jenn T Grace:
Wow, that's not bad.
Alice Derock:
But that's not too bad, but that was only for one product. So it can go fast, but the mistake that I made was to put to the market only one product. We should have done like maybe a line of products and we did like maybe launched like five or six products one at a time ...

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AUDIO TITLE: Episode #62 – Jeremy Wallace Interview
Jenn T Grace:
So yeah, so let's just dive right in and let me ask you the first question which is if you could just share with the listeners of this podcast just a little bit about your story. So if you want to talk about what your path looked like that led you to the place you are today, talk a little bit about your professional past, your personal past. Really just kind of what makes you the Jeremy Wallace that we know today.
Jeremy Wallace:
Okay, wonderful. Well I am almost 44 years old, and I can say that about three years ago was the first time that I experienced what it was like to be truly happy. And that was because I had been pretty much immersed into my transition from female to male. And so growing up in the seventies I didn't know anything about transgender issues, I never had heard the word before, I just was a miserable kid all the time. There was pockets of, you know, smiles and good times, but for the most part I would say this dark cloud just followed me everywhere. I couldn't figure out why I never felt normal, I never felt like I fit in my skin, and just as I got older and more mature and a little more life under my belt, I started to realize that what was happening was the reason why I was miserable is because when I would look in the mirror, I always expected to see something different looking back at me. So I would pick myself apart, and I couldn't- and it started to unravel and realized that the stuff I was feeling- and I always felt like I was a little boy when I was growing up. That that's who I really am. And I decided then at 37 to actually really dive into this with just all faith; just basically jump into an empty pool and hope there's water kind of experience. And that's what I did. So at 37 I made the life-changing, the life-affirming decision to transition. And I would say that it was the best thing I've ever done in my entire life.
Jenn T Grace:
That's really- that's really awesome. And I know that you have written a book, and I think a lot of my listeners know that I do work with a lot of authors or people who are professional speakers, or their desire is to become a professional speaker. And you were kind enough to send me your book, and I personally was just blown away by the quality. So I do know a lot of people who have written books, and not to discount anyone's quality of anyone's book, but even your book compared to mine, like just the quality just is completely superior, it's just awesome. So can you just share I guess a little bit about that process of how you came to wanting to actually put your story in writing so others can learn from it?
Jeremy Wallace:
Sure. And first of all, thank you for that compliment, that was very, very sweet. I would say that I- when I first transitioned, in fact I remember even this almost verbatim coming out of my mouth. There's no way I'm going to be a poster child for this. And well, as all things in life, things change. So not that I consider myself a poster child but I am choosing to be highly visible. How that came about was once I settled into my own skin, I would tell people about certain things that happened while I was transitioning. Funny things that would happen. And as I told the stories people were actually real intrigued and I found that by me telling stories, that that broke through that kind of uncomfortableness between when people were like, "Ooh, I'm not really sure what- what you're going through. I don't think I've ever met somebody who's transgender. This seems a little weird.

Before I get into our topic of celebration and marriage equality and what's next - I want to say THANK YOU to the 5,000+ new listeners who enjoyed episodes during the month of June. This is the 3rd year in a row I've aired the interviews and I have to say - you are all amazing.

For those of you who are listening to this for the first time after having been introduced to the podcast via a great interview from the 30 Days - 30 Voices project - welcome!

Today's episode is going to be about all of the great things marriage equality can bring to us.
Below are the links mentioned in today's episode:

The Washington Post
Facebook Went Red for Marriage Equality: The Results
#48: How to be an ally to a community you don't belong to [Podcast]
Will changing your Facebook profile do anything for marriage equality?
Employment Non-Discrimination Act
LGBT Entrepreneurs

Listen to the episode by clicking the play button below!

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AUDIO TITLE: Episode #61 – Marriage Equality Has Arrived, But the Work is Far From Done!
Jenn T Grace:
You are listening to the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast, Episode 61.
Intro:
Welcome to the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast where you'll learn how to do business with and market to the LGBT community in an authentic and transparent way. We're talking about the $790 billion lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community. We'll help you grow your business, gain market share and impact your bottom line. And now your host - she's an entrepreneur, a marketing maven and an advocate for the LGBT business community. Jenn, with two N's, T. Grace.
Jenn T Grace:
Hello and welcome to episode number 61 of the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast. Today is Wednesday, July 1st. And today is a completely off the beaten path episode for you. I typically put out a podcast every other Thursday, and today I wanted to do a random one actually on July 1st, just after this past June because I recently relaunched the Thirty Days, Thirty Voices: Stories from America's LGBT Business Leaders Podcast Series. Which basically ran for every single day in June, and the reason I'm bringing that up and the reason why I'm recording today on Wednesday, July 1st, is because I need to thank you and welcome you to this podcast. I have over 5,000 new listeners. The last time I checked which was a couple of hours ago, I had 5,251 new listeners as a result of this past June and the Pride Month episodes. So I seriously cannot thank you enough. And I know that I did not have these 5,251 new listeners prior to June 1st so welcome to this podcast, I'm super excited to have you, I'm so happy that you found the show. You might have found it as a result of somebody that you know, some expert that I interviewed and you wanted to check it out. But regardless of how you found your way to this podcast, I am so excited to have you here.
Today's special topic...
So today's special edition episode is to talk about marriage equality; I'm sure you were so surprised by that being the topic of today's discussion. So I know that I do have a really significant size audience that is outside of the United States, but I am going to be talking to you, the US listeners today, and those I guess who are in other countries who sell to the United States. So if you have been living under a rock, which perhaps you have, the Supreme Court of the United States this past Friday handed down a ruling making same-sex marriages the law of the land here in the United States. This is such a huge, huge victory for the LGBT community, for LGBT equality across the board, it's really just really exciting. And as a side note which I'm super excited about is that this al...